Fans visit memory lane as Sunset Bowl closes

Sale to developer adds 51 years of stories to Seattle history books

ATHIMA CHANSANCHA, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By ATHIMA CHANSANCHAI, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, April 13, 2008

Roy Lynch, right, and Bob Davidson share a moment as their time at Sunset Bowl comes to an end Sunday. Lynch's memories there include proposing to his first wife. Davidson's father once managed the business: "I grew up here."
Photo: Karen Ducey/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Roy Lynch, right, and Bob Davidson share a moment as their time at...

Sunset Bowl was more than a bowling alley. Moms bonded there while their kids played in the day care. Spouses met. Families came for breakfast and a game before church. And exotic dancers unwound with a few frames -- and a few moves. The bowling alley was sold to a developer linked to a major apartment developer.
Photo: Karen Ducey/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Sunset Bowl was more than a bowling alley. Moms bonded there while...

Sunset Bowl, a Ballard fixture for 51 years, is no more.
Photo: Karen Ducey/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Sunset Bowl, a symbol of bygone Ballard and home to thousands of bowlers over five decades, died at 1 a.m. Monday, the victim of a sale to a developer. Family and friends surrounded it until the end. It was 51.

On Sunset's last full day alive, Sunday, the Wrecking Ball Tournament of doubles teams took over the lanes in the morning, while the Vegas league closed the Sunset out.

"How sad, sad, sad this place is closing," said Karen Roe, 50, of West Seattle. "It's an institution. It's all about the money. We hope and pray they'll build a bowling alley."

Hours earlier, fans flocked to the alley in the wee hours to pay homage.

"It was a final goodbye to a Seattle landmark," said Hannah Murphy, 18, a student at Ingraham High School, whose bowling name -- at least on the electronic scorer -- was Gorgeous. "The best time to come here is at 3 a.m."

It was more than a place to roll a ball down an alley, knock down some pins at any hour and chug beers. At Sunset, lifelong friendships formed. Kids played in theday care in the '70s while their moms bonded. League bowlers found their mates. Birthday- and bachelorette-partygoers belted out Journey songs in the bar accompanied by a karaoke machine. Low-key gamblers tried their luck on pull-tabs. Restaurant staff memorized regulars' lunch orders.

Some families bowled full games and had breakfast -- all before church. They got up at the crack of dawn on weekends to take advantage of 69 cents-a-game specials.

Sunset brought all kinds through its doors. Homeless guys living out of their cars came in with laptops to use the free Wi-Fi. Exotic dancers who used to strip at a now-closed 15th Avenue NW club unwound after their shifts with a few frames -- one doing her moves on top of a table between lanes 10 and 11, down to her underwear. Twenty- and 30-something Underdog competitors, lucky to break 100, mixed with semi-pros who regularly bowled eight or nine strikes in a row.

The 26-lane bowling alley at 1420 N.W. Market St. has been sold to developer Avalon Ballard LLC, an entity linked to a major apartment developer, for $13.2 million, according to King County records. Sunset Bowl's owners sold Leilani Lanes -- Sunset's sister alley -- two years ago to a developer for $6.2 million. Calls to its California regional office and Bellevue offices were not returned.

Manager Verl Lowry, 61, remembers winning a televised youth tournament in 1960 at age 13, long before he came to run it in 1980. "There's warmness and coziness here you don't feel at a lot of bowling centers," Lowry said. "There's something comfortable here."

After that, Lowry's life revolved around pins and balls. He was a lane man at various alleys, cleaning lanes and gutters, putting oil on the lanes and buffing them.

Now, his future is uncertain. "I've never had to look for a job in my life," he said. "I need a job. I really need medical."

Along with Lowry, 50 other employees will be out of work, including 15 who have worked at Sunset for more than two decades.

To keep up with the times, Sunset started appealing more to open bowlers -- not league bowlers -- back in the early 1990s. But as the open bowlers improved, they created their own teams and leagues. About 27 leagues and 1,000 league bowlers were active at Sunset up until Sunday and 24 have found new homes -- West Seattle, Kenmore, Robin Hood, Spin Alley, Majestic and Imperial.

At an auction April 22, every piece of Sunset that can be taken apart will go on sale. Of course, some customers couldn't wait to take away their piece of history -- shoes always have gone missing.

Phyllis Andreasen, 58, thinks Sunset should give her and her loyal league bowlers each a pin for all the years they've been there. After all, she met her best friend, Teeder Mueller, 61, through a league there 25 years ago.

Both were moms with young kids -- each has two sons and two daughters -- looking for some adult company. They bonded while their children played in the day care. Now best friends, they teared up as they played Sunset Bowl Bingo, and bowled a few last frames the week before the closing.

"I'm heartbroken. It's like seeing your home being razed," said Mueller, who bowled there as a kid in Ballard. "We have a lot of memories of this place."

She met her current husband in 1992 at Sunset through a Thursday night coed league, and they married in 1996. She hired a belly dancer for his 50th birthday party -- thrown at Sunset, naturally.

In the spring, the two women live their lives according to the "Four Basic B's": bowling, bingo, baseball and beer.

"These people, they became my family," said Andreasen, who lived in Ballard for 25 years before moving to a condo downtown.

"My first reaction, I was angry," she said. "It seemed like they were taking part of Ballard away.

"I'm hoping this will rise again. People would come back. I know I would," Andreasen said. "It's a family. Bring it back, dagnabit."